IV.

Cadence did what he loved best. Lightsaber practice. One hour after another, swing, swing, swing. The loops and spins of Form Three grew faster, easier, more natural almost by the minute. Soon he was changing hands behind his back, twirling the blade overhead. Viktor wasn't here to bark that he wasn't ready, that he would "Chop his little milk seed of ahead off," whatever that meant. Viktor was unofficially his third Master. The first two were boring. Philosophy, history, meditation! They mewled at him about the dangers of pride, arrogance, overeagerness, everything! Cadence wasn't prideful, he knew he wasn't the best at a damn thing. He even completely accepted that it was Aron who was the prodigal son. Aron could move more with the force, heal faster with the force, jump higher with the force, and Aron beat Cadence in every single sparring match they'd ever have. It didn't hurt cadence. No, Aron was raised in the temple from infancy. Aron killed his mother on the way into the world. Aron was the one who had the blonde hair that so upset The Duke. Poor bastard, it was that dead mother that made him the better one, the more responsible one, the one slowly losing his soul to the crushing weight of RESPONSIBILITY.
Cadence came here at the age of six. Man did those wrinkly cake-faces in the council have a FIT! That was the most harrowing moment of Cadence's life. Six years old, already too old to live the fairy tale? The dream?! But here he was. El Dolce saw to that. 

Cadence didn't feel anything about General Slifer either. The man was a legend. Maybe Cadence felt glad to have the pedigree, the ability to say "Yes, the Dragon of the Republic, the Duke, the Indefeatable One, that's my father." but old Martellus was just a man to Cadence, and Cadence truly pitied him. The force was a gift every day. All day every day, like living under the Life Day tree and the clouds just RAIN presents. Was he the only one who still loved his lightsaber like a child loves their most treasured toy? Was he the only one who marvelled at the weightless beam of light, the infinite potential that it was, and all his life, he'd have a chance everyday to love that sword more. There was no hate, no jealousy at all! The only apprehention about squadron detail he had was that... 
He didn't like flying anywhere near as much as climbing, or doing kata drills, learning hand to hand fighting from Blademaster Gennesei. Man that dude was cool! What awesomeness it was to have the elected best lightsaber specialist of all of the Jedi tell you that he enjoyed punching a man and twisting his arm into knots twice as much as he loved anything about a saber!
Plus, Cadence would be responsible for others. He's really have to protect some dudes that couldn't see, or hear, or think, or move as fast as he could. Those poor, poor men! Driving those damn crosshatch-winged, little fleas through space was hard enough without the force. 

His saber was yellow. Nobody liked the yellow ones. 
One of the padawan's had ever so much of a mean streak. Eedie Bromide, human kid, dark skin, but still had the audacity to have purple freckles, AND curly hair and still tease the other kids. Eedie got punished by the teachers every single day, but he never stopped joshing around. His jokes were always just clean enough, his jabs just gentle enough, that the other padawan's started to like him. Eedie gave the place a spirit of competition, and he even took a joke and a prank better than he gave them. Damn Masters still expelled him for being so rebellious. Kid laughed all the way to the bank. Took his Force Sensitivity with him and became a Sector-Champion junk racer by the time he was seventeen. He didn't go off murdering people, or cooking them with lightning. Just like Cadence, the force was everything to Eedie. Course Eedie hated the temple, and he sucked at rebelling. Cadence only got punishment, clean up duty usually, once a month at worst. That ape Colossus Viktor Rock even liked Cadence. Asked personally to tutor him.
Tomorrow, he'd report to the base in the Meridian sector, hope against all hope those Republic Army sadists didn't assign him to Ithor, and start assembling a squadron. He'd be lucky to make flying ace before those Mandalorian's surrendered anyway. 

The idea of killing still brought an unwelcome tingel. He knew he could kill a mandalorian. That race was drunk on bloodlust as a whole, might as well be killing holovid henchmen on the "Corellian Cowboy" flick. Spaceships, combustion pistols, what's the difference. The mandalorian battlecry could be translated out to "We feel nothing but love in battle, in every victory, in every loss, in every dead man." On all the holovid propaganda, hearing those brutes scream that before dropping on a planet on a dragon-droid, Cadence just heard "I am evil! I am a faceless badguy! I got your girlfriend tied up on the steam transport tracks!"

The only thing that got just a little under the young Jedi's skin was those two Masters before Viktor. They both died in this war. They were old beings, they did not fear death. Cadence was young, there was a lot of time to dream he could lose out there in the dead vacuum of space....

"Negative thoughts! The second I get one, then I'm tired, now I'm sweating." Cadence had a small laugh at that. The sunset still was nice to watch here on the side of the Jedi plateau. He held his saber up to the setting sun.

"Pissaber," Eedie had called him when no instructor was in earshot. Cadence never heard his own name once come out of Eedie's mouth. The kid, crying, a scared 14 year old with a knapsack and nowhere to go, given a lousy fifteen minutes to say goodbye before he had some physical help to leave the temple, had given Cadence a real hug. A true "thank you," a genuine smile. Cadence never forgot that moment, when Eedie looked so afraid, he could smell the fear sweat stuck to the tight curls of the exiled padawan's hair.
But that smile was truer than every line of the Jedi code, and his words were the real truth that Cadence lived by.
"Stay golden, Pissaber. I only called you that because I envied your smarts in picking that ugly sword."

Cadence smiled, looking at the sky right through his sword. He was nowhere near the best swordfighter, but still... In duels at dawn, and at sunset,
Cadence was undefeated.